'North versus South' : The docks dispute at Sunderland in the 1830s

Abstract

In the Rolt Memorial Lecture of Spring 1977 Professor Skempton's account of the development of the harbour at Sunderland closed at 1817 by which time the basic technological and administrative framework was completed. Skempton did, however, indicate that 'Much of course still remained to be done'. It is the intention of this article to carry the story of the harbour beyond 1817 by examining the first episode in the theme of the building of docks at Sunderland. The bitter clash over the siting of the first dock at Sunderland is not only of considerable interest from a technological point of view, it also brings to the fore-front a tangled web of social and economic interests and crosscurrents and therefore affords, incidentally, an excellent commentary on the nature of the community itself in the 1830s.